A magic lantern slide showing one of Britain’s earliest X-ray images is among the more unusual items heading to this summer’s Cotswolds Decorative, Antiques & Art Fair.
Magic lantern slide depicting a Röntgen ray shadowgram of a human hand produced c.1900 by radiologist Sir James Mackenzie Davidson. It is priced at £120 from Andy Maule at the Cotswolds Decorative, Antiques & Art Fair.
Produced c. 1900 by pioneering radiologist Sir James Mackenzie Davidson, it depicts a Röntgen ray shadowgram of a human hand complete with a ring on one finger.
Davidson was among the earliest British advocates of X-rays, travelling to meet their discoverer, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, in Germany soon after the breakthrough in 1895 before helping develop techniques that transformed the technology into a practical medical tool.
Originally produced for teaching and public lectures, few examples of these early radiographic lantern slides survive. Andy Maule will offer the slide for £120.
Fellow exhibitor The Antique Map Shop offers a first-edition hand-coloured map of Cornwall by the celebrated English cartographer John Speed, dating c.1612, which is priced at £1950.
Printed from a copperplate engraving, it provides an early glimpse of the county during the reign of James I.
Offered at £1950 from The Antique Map Shop is this first-edition hand-coloured map of Cornwall by English cartographer John Speed, dating c.1612.
Cotswolds Decorative, Antiques & Art Fair, organised by Cooper Events, brings together these dealers and 40 other exhibitors in the Great Hall, Orangery and adjoining rooms of Grade I-listed Westonbirt House, the neo Elizabethan mansion built in the 1860s by the wealthy art collector Robert Stayner Holford.
It runs from August 7-9, offering art and antiques priced from under £20 to over £20,000.
New exhibitors include Willow Antiques of Corsham, bringing decorative furnishings and collectors’ pieces for the home and garden, Exmoor Antiques, specialising in English furniture, fine art and country house furnishings, and The Board Residence, specialising in “time worn” furniture, decorative pieces and architectural salvage.
Returning exhibitors include jewellery dealer Billy Rae, Modern British art specialist Granta Fine Art, Jane Orde Japanese Prints, Art Deco furniture dealer Markies Antiques and Dansk Silver by Jane Burgett.
Organiser Sue Ede said the fair attracts visitors from across the UK as well as overseas, drawn partly by the Cotswolds’ popularity. Located just outside Tetbury, the event is also hoping to benefit from the area’s heightened profile following the success of Disney+’s raunchy TV show Rivals, which was filmed in locally.